The Carroll Foundation Maryland Trust's family archival records have disclosed that the iconic industrialist Henry Ford purchased the Neave families Dagnam Park estate Essex which universally became the foundation of the Ford Motor Company of Europe centred on the Dagenham engine plant aside the river thames. Gerald Carroll's late grandfather John E Carroll was one of the main developers who built the vast industrial and housing estate centred on the Ford Dagenham plant which was the prelude to a long standing relationship between the Carroll family and Ford Motor Company that has carried through the generations to this day.